THE SELF DEFENSE PROBLEM
Today, self defense and protection training is more prolific and
available than ever. It seems that on every street corner there’s a
school that teaches self defense and in every magazine there’s a new ad
every month for the ultimate protection system.

With this market saturation how does the concerned citizen make an
informed decision as to what school or instructor offers them the best
and most appropriate product?

One area to pay attention to is how the training is structured. More
specifically does the instructor have a grasp on, and always keep his
material relevant to, the context.

If we are to seek solutions the first thing we have to do is understand the problem.

Most citizens are concerned about the problem of criminal assault and
what solutions are the most appropriate for managing this issue.

So with that said, let’s look at the problem of criminal assault and more importantly how training is historically structured.

REALITY

No criminal wants to get caught or get hurt themselves while carrying
out a crime. A criminal will stack the odds in his favor and usually
only initiates action when there is a high probability of success. It’s
not an issue of ego or a contest of skill with a junkie who’s craving a
fix. It’s about getting paid for the professional violent criminal. So
some norms in criminal assault that we see repeated time and time again
are:

Attack initiated by surprise

Range closed by a ruse if surprise cannot be gained

The presence of a weapon

The presence of another criminal

On the surface this seems to be a simple paradigm that one would
think the training industry would always pay homage to. However for the
most part, the training industry has failed to stay honest to the
problem. How so? Well let’s look at how most training is structured.

RELEVANCE AND PRIORITY IN TRAINING

To understand where training has failed historically let’s go back and examine our constants in criminal assault.Attack initiated by surprise

Most training is conducted under circumstances where the trainee is allowed to have equal initiative
with his training partner. You know there’s going to be an attack.
Consequently you can “prep” yourself and think about what you’re going
to do. This can drastically affect the core content of the training.

Range closed by a ruse if surprise cannot be gained

How much training begins with the given technique applied while the
student is in the Threat Management stage of a potential confrontation?
How much uncertainty is there in a student’s mind when he’s required to
apply a technique in training?

Looking at these first two criminal assault “norms” is a student ever
doing anything other than rehearsing a technique or waiting to rehearse
a technique? Is there any mundane task that the student is required to
be engaged in, a split second before he’s required to demonstrate his
proficiency?
The presence of a weapon

This is particularly absent in empty hand training. How much of the
student’s time is spent working empty hand against weapons versus empty
hand to empty hand?

The presence of another criminal

As noted above this is also noticeably absent in most self defense/protection training.

Why? Because multiple opponents and weapons are difficult problems
to deal with. Most people who train are enthusiasts. They enjoy it.
No one, after a hard day on the job, maybe working for someone they
dislike, wants to go participate in something that leaves them feeling
dejected and frustrated. So we DO the things we’re GOOD at. And our
training devolves into an enjoyable, athletic endeavor that is about as
relevant as any other enjoyable, athletic endeavor such as skateboarding
or ballroom dancing.

With that said what’s the relevance of holding ourselves to the
standard of two rounds in the A-zone at 7 yards in 1.5 seconds from
concealment when the criminal is not going to give you a reason to shoot
him until he’s right on top of you?

What’s the relevance of standing off at mid-range and swatting at one another with training knives?

What’s the relevance of an extreme close quarter pistol technique
that cannot withstand any forward drive by an opponent that is that
close?

What’s the relevance of a knife grip that sacrifices strength in favor of maneuverability?

What’s the relevance of seeking an arm bar instead of getting to your feet?

Somebody explain to me how given a limited period of training time,
any of these things reflect the context of criminal assault except in
the most esoteric way?

So now that we’ve figured out what’s wrong what should the concerned citizen look for in a good trainer or school?

THE SIGNATURES OF GOOD TRAINING

All training, whatever the sub-discipline is should include some
concept or model of Awareness and Threat Management, with definitive,
real solutions included in the latter.

All training whatever the sub-discipline is should have the core content reflect the reality of unequal initiative and disproportional armament.

All training, whatever the sub-discipline is, should reflect the
importance and the value of the other sub-disciplines. If the “gun guy”
eschews empty hand training or the “martial artist” says that your gun
will only be taken and used against you, look somewhere else.

It’s important that YOU, the concerned citizen get good information and know what to look for.

I’m a fanatic about contextually underscored training. We should
always be examining the problem and focus our solutions accurately.

Tactics, I’ve come to realize in the citizen self defense world are
more often than not, merely paid lip service to. Most training focuses
on technical development of motor skills whether that’s shooting, blade
work, or empty hand skills.

After all we must understand the problem, before we can discuss solutions.

Click for larger pic Been in a Steven Seagal mood. Made some animated GIFs of him in action. Please check out this Steven Seagal movie....

Site Under Construction

Slowly but surely I've implemented changes to the site's look and functionality. I'm sure you have noticed the changes.Ecstatic that I've finally been able to successfully update my site closer more in line with my vision of it.

Not sure if it will be the final look of the site or not, but the Sojourn of Septillion Steps with respect to the site's look has already taken quite a few steps beyond the first!

I will still be endeavoring to put up information I think will benefit your martial arts training as well as your self-defense. I sincerely thank you for visiting/reading!